


I think I’m falling in love with my best friend

by HolyCatsAndRabbits



Series: Mr. Fell's Bookshop ficlets [5]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Aziraphale and Crowley in Love (Good Omens), Established Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Established Relationship, Flustered Crowley (Good Omens), Love Notes, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Miracles, Mr. Fell's bookshop, POV Outsider, Queer Guardian Angel Aziraphale (Good Omens)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21806275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HolyCatsAndRabbits/pseuds/HolyCatsAndRabbits
Summary: “Angel,” Mr. Crowley said quietly, “it might be time for one of your parlor tricks.”Mr. Fell made a face at his husband. “Will you stop calling ethereal miracles parlor tricks?”Mr. Crowley made a show of considering it. “Ah...no, that’s not likely.”
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Mr. Fell's Bookshop ficlets [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1500449
Comments: 215
Kudos: 1300





	I think I’m falling in love with my best friend

**Author's Note:**

> Returning character from earlier in the series: Lloyd: high school age male, bookshop regular (Audrey's friend)
> 
> This fic is now a podfic by the wonderful kholly! Follow the “other works inspired by this one” link to find it.

“I think I’m falling in love with my best friend.” 

Lloyd hadn’t expected that it would be easy to talk about this, but Mr. Fell had a very peaceful, somewhat knowing look on his face, and the story just flowed out. “We’ve been friends a long time, but I think it’s starting to be more for me. And I want to ask him to prom, so I thought I’d write him a note, because, you know, we’re in high school, we write notes like third-graders.” He gestured to his computer, which showed nothing but a blank page.

They were alone in the bookshop now, as it was nearly closing time and already dark outside. But Mr. Fell didn’t seem anxious to chase Lloyd away. Instead he settled into a chair and handed Lloyd a cup of hot cocoa that (as usual) seemed to have materialized from nowhere. 

“You know,” said Mr. Fell, “writing a letter to one’s beloved is a time-honored act of love. And Crowley, if you are making fun of me right now I will never write you another letter.”

Behind Mr. Fell, Mr. Crowley stilled whatever sarcastic gesture he’d been making and cleared his throat. “Please continue, Lloyd.”

“But I can’t,” Lloyd said softly. “Jason is handsome and funny and sweet and smart and I—I am a mess. I don’t even know how to talk to him about this, so I thought the note—but I can’t write. Sometimes I think I can’t do anything.” He clutched his empty hands together. “I feel like I’d be so bad for him. He’s such a wonderful person. And he’s been weird the last couple of days, and I don’t know if he even wants to be my friend anymore. What if it’s because he thinks _I’ve_ been acting weird and he knows I like him but he doesn’t want me to? I could ruin our whole friendship. Geez, listen to me, I’m sorry.” He rubbed at his cheek in case the tear in his eye fell onto it.

“Angel,” Mr. Crowley said quietly, “it might be time for one of your parlor tricks.”

Mr. Fell made a face at his husband. “ _Will_ you stop calling ethereal miracles parlor tricks?”

Mr. Crowley made a show of considering it. “Ah...no, that’s not likely.”

“Why do I even keep you around?” Mr. Fell asked.

“I believe you’ve said that I’m Temptation Incarnate.”

“Yes, well, that’s a job description, not a personal quality.”

Mr. Crowley’s eyebrows rose above his sunglasses, and there was the ghost of a smile on his mouth. “Really?”

Mr. Fell rolled his eyes, but he also blushed. To Lloyd he said, “I feel I should warn you that the handsome ones are _trouble.”_

Lloyd laughed a little, and Mr. Fell gave him a gentle smile. “My dear, may I show you what my favorite thing about you is?”

“Uh—sure?”

Mr. Fell pointed to Lloyd’s reflection in the darkened shop windows. The image blurred and then changed, and instead of Lloyd sitting there, there seemed to be a person made of colored lights that sparkled like jewels.

“You might see yourself as a mess,” Mr. Fell said, “but this is how I see you. All the beautiful parts of you that make up your soul. The blue gem in your left shoulder, that’s the part of you that gave your coat and scarf to that homeless man last winter. The pink just under your heart is the part of you that spent an entire Saturday helping your cousin find his lost cat, right before that awful storm we had.”

Mr. Crowley spoke up. “What’s the big gold part?”

Mr. Fell smiled. “Oh, that is one of my favorites. That is the part of you, Lloyd, that opens your bedroom window every day to yell to your six-year-old neighbor that his violin playing sounds wonderful. Even though, of course, it doesn’t. You have no idea, my dear, what a difference a simple act of kindness like that can make. He’s going to be a musician someday, make music for the whole world, and that gold part you see there is your contribution to it, because that music won’t come only from his talent but also from your encouragement when he needed it.” Mr. Fell laid a gentle hand on Lloyd’s shoulder. “You are stunning, my dear. And this is what people truly care about and want in a partner. How do you think I ended up with him?” Mr. Fell tilted his head toward his husband. “His soul rather looks like yours.”

Mr. Crowley made some sort of exasperated growling noise and another sarcastic gesture, but Mr. Fell just smiled. “You are worth loving, Lloyd. If Jason is your friend, then he already knows this about you. People who are friends first often make the best romantic partners for that reason.”

Mr. Crowley was still frowning at his husband. “And sometimes it’s the case that both friends want it to be more and for whatever stupid reason don’t tell each other.”

“It is a risk,” Mr. Fell agreed. “But if you feel this strongly about him, it might be a risk worth taking.”

Lloyd watched the window reflection turn back to reality—well, whatever passed for reality in the bookshop, anyway. “Can you—” His voice wavered a little. “Can you help me write the note?”

“Of course!” Mr. Fell exclaimed.

“Oh, no,” Mr. Crowley objected, “Aziraphale, you’re just going to put in a lot of flowery language. These are modern kids—”

“Hush, I am not,” Mr. Fell said. “Lloyd, just say this: _Jason, I have been by your side for so long that I know there is nowhere I would rather be. We have walked together past my fears, and now, I would like to ask you to follow me somewhere new, somewhere we might be even closer.”_

Mr. Crowley spoke up, very softly. “You memorized that?”

Mr. Fell raised his eyebrows in surprise. “People do like to remember their proposals, my dear.”

At school the next day, Lloyd found his hand was shaking as he held out the piece of paper to Jason. “I wrote you a letter.” He’d even printed the damn thing, somehow feeling like Mr. Fell would have wanted him to.

Jason didn’t take it. He was looking everywhere but Lloyd’s face. “That’s great,” he said absently. “Sorry I've been weird the last couple of days. I've been trying to figure out how to...sod it. Look. Lloyd, you are the best thing that ever—you’re so amazing. And I don’t want to make things weird, but—do you want to go to prom with me?”

**

Bonus: the whole proposal (which Crowley also still has memorized, of course, it took him long enough to write the damn thing):

Aziraphale, I have been by your side for so long that I know there is nowhere I would rather be, because when the two of us are together, what is too dark becomes light, and what is too bright becomes shaded. We have walked together past my fears, and now, I would like to ask you to follow me somewhere new, somewhere we might be even closer. For you I would ignore all the voices in my head that tell me that I'm not good enough and it's not right to ask someone like you to be with me. For you I would struggle away from my past and stake my whole heart on hope. I would jump and trust you to catch me. For you I would believe again. Will you marry me, Principality Aziraphale, Guard of the Eastern Gate?

And the reply (which Aziraphale had also written beforehand, because he figured a proposal was coming, but which he sternly insists that he made up on the spot):

Oh, my darling, you know my answer already. But let me make sure that you know this: Crowley, you are the reason I never gave up on love even when it was so often denied me by the people who said they loved me. You, who _couldn't_ say it, but gave it so freely, the way true love is always given, without knowing if it would or could be returned. My dear Serpent, for you I would Fall. But I don't have to, because loving you is not wrong. It is the best thing I have ever done.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are so appreciated! 
> 
> Find me on tumblr [HolyCatsAndRabbits](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/holycatsandrabbits)  
> Twitter [@DannyeChase](https://twitter.com/DannyeChase)  
> Facebook [Dannye Chase](https://facebook.com/DannyeChase)  
> and Instagram [dannye_chase](https://www.instagram.com/dannye_chase/)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic of] I think I'm falling in love with my best friend](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23528395) by [kholly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kholly/pseuds/kholly)




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